Eudemonia
by Queen of the Red Skittle
Summary: A young girl survives a deadly yautja attack. Years later, the nightmare returns.
1. i

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing except my numerous OCs.

**A.N:** Language and gore ahead.

**A.N#2:** I started this story back in 2012, when it looked and sounded very different. After a few false starts over the years, it wasn't until mid-2018 that I started giving this piece the attention it deserved.

**A.N#3:** Written mostly to Ramin Djawadi's Game of Thrones over the years, particularly, "Kneel for No Man," "The Iron Throne," and "The Last of the Starks."

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"hooray say the roses, darkness comes  
all at once, like lights gone out,  
the sun leaves dark continents  
and rows of stone."

—Charles Bukowski, "Hooray Say the Roses"

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Eudemonia

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Frank Summers hated the smell from the river.

In the early mornings the reek would permeate the air like a haze, making the sixty colonists of planet LV-972 bestow the moniker "Shit Hill" to their home. Weyland-Yutani Corp. had failed to mention this attribute when they assigned the people to the terraformed planet six months ago, and Frank hated it with all his being. He hated it when he woke up and when he went to bed.

The smell was the worst. It reminded Frank of a sewer, as if something had crawled in a pipe and died. Faintly carrion-sweet and putrid, it would seep into everything, even in the stitches of his clothes.

It was a death smell.

The dim, animal part of him distrusted and feared it, and that morning was no different. Frank could've sworn it was worse than usual, as if a thousand rotting eggs had burst their seams. He stood beyond his tin-and-concrete house, far enough from the colony to feel alone. A real fog rolled out from the river. It began to make its way towards Shit Hill, thick as rat soup. Fogs on LV-972 could last for days, the cool air stagnant over the ground.

_It's out to get me_, he thought. _The whole damn planet._ The fog reached his toes, then engulfed him. Within seconds the churring of Shit Hill's generators faded away and Frank was wrapped in a cocoon of silence. A solid wall of yellow stood before him, the stink from the river slapping his nose like a hooker with two-inch nails.

"Jesus Christ," he swore, spitting at the mud. Water droplets began to gather on the brim of his baseball cap. Frank swore again, louder this time, and was disturbed when he could hear the fog muffle his voice. It wasn't natural. None of it was. He wasn't even sure why he was out here in the first place. Muttering, hating, Frank turned to head back inside when he caught a movement. The man paused. He squinted at the place he thought he saw flicker, the pulse of his heart obscenely loud in his ears. Nothing. The vomit-coloured fog was as motionless as congealed grease. The longer he stared, the more he realized it'd been his imagination.

"Fuck this." Frank took two strides towards the settlement when a giggle sliced through the fog.

"Help me." The words were high and girlish, as if coming from a child.

Frank stopped, frowning. There were several girls in Shit Hill, but only one played in the fog.

"Heidi? Is that you?" he called. Silence met him. He grunted. "Heidi, I ain't in a mood for jokes. C'mon out, now."

The voice giggled again. It came from his left. "Help me, help me."

Frank strode forward, fed up. "For the love of Christ—"

_"Help me."_

A shape solidified in front of him and Frank stumbled back with a startled shout. It was tall, taller than him, humanoid in shape. It stood in the yellow light as if part of it, not disturbing a single current of air. At first Frank thought it had no face, but then realized he was staring at a mask, a mask without mouth or nose indications. He couldn't see its eyes, the lenses too opaque. An odd design was seared into the metal forehead, two curved lines with a horrific slash running through them. The slash seemed more recent than the other two, gleaming white in the metal. Strange tubes framed the sweeping crown, like oiled snakes.

_Like dreadlocks,_ Frank thought, belly cramping with hysterical laughter. In a moment of insane clarity he could see rings encircling several of them. Metal scales covered one its shoulders like a football player's equipment. A belt was slung across its body, a body Frank knew to be human because he could see biceps and pectorals and abdominals.

A costume. The fear leeched away and Frank relaxed, laughing. This idiot had claws on his fingertips. He was even dressed in fishnet. The person tilted his head, birdlike, an odd clicking sound coming somewhere around his throat.

If this fucker was trying to appear threatening, it wasn't working. Frank was on his game. He leered at the costumed man, anger flaring. So, he was the butt of some elaborate joke, huh? The guys were probably laughing their asses off.

"Hey, man, what's the big idea?" Frank said, pissed off and ugly now. He brought up a hand to shove the other. "Think it's funny to scare the hell outta a guh—"

The blades came out of nowhere. They slid into Frank's belly easily, stopping to the hilt. There was no pain, only shock. The costumed guy leaned close, the eye lenses dark and blank. Frank heard his own laughter sling back at him. The blades retreated. Frank stared, jaw agape, as his guts fell from his body like bloated ropes. His brain felt stupid and cold as he tried to gather himself back inside, hands becoming slick with blood and mucus.

_This is just a dream_, he thought. A foul stink rose up. Frank looked down and saw he had shit his pants. Just a fog-dream. It happens to people sometimes. But death was running down his legs, as real and visceral as the monster in front of him.

Frank collapsed to his knees, still trying to stuff his guts back in. "There's more of you?" he tried to say, but someone else was in the process of sawing through his neck.

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.s.

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22 years later - present

_What's that in the fog? _

Heidi Glassman shot awake, cold sweat covering her body. She hadn't had that dream in years. She looked at her clock and found it was ten minutes before her shift.

She was still staring blankly at the time when a tremor pitched her to the floor. After fifteen years of working on freighters and passenger ships, Heidi knew whatever hit _Eyopiax_ was big. Bigger than big. That surprised her, because last she'd heard from the captain they weren't near any spacial phenomenon. It was just wide, empty void this far out, and they were at least another week from Gelenus III.

A groan shuddered through _Eyopiax_, sounding as if the ship was being gutted. The lights of the tiny cabin sputtered before axillary power caught hold, flooding everything harsh green. It made the rust stains look like blood.

"Dammit," Heidi said, hating the day even though it wasn't half past morning.

She threw on her guard's smock, grabbed her pulse rifle, and entered chaos in the hallway. She found her guard partner shoving civvies out of the way, snarling them off. His name was Jacob Halling, and though she thought him a blowhard on bad days and an idiot on good ones, there was no doubting his abilities as a soldier. Like her, he found jobs whenever he could, but apart from their relatable backgrounds, they didn't socialize. When he saw her, he pointed up.

Hard seal. They were being boarded.

Heidi tried focusing for the origin. Passengers kept looking at her, expecting answers.

"You think median line?" she asked Halling. She turned to avoid eavesdroppers.

"Yeah. Wouldn't be surprised if it isn't over the command bridge," he said.

Heidi frowned. Who would want anything with a transport scrapheap not even worth its weight in metal? The combined value of the passengers' ransom wouldn't even fetch precious ore. It was almost too absurd to think.

"There won't be much of a fight," she said.

Halling grunted. "They must know it too. This piece of junk couldn't stand against a determined worm."

Screams began to echo throughout the ship, faint at first, then growing closer. The transport vessel wasn't big. Whatever was coming was moving fast, especially if the hijackers had schematics. The screaming took on a frenzied edge when the unmistakable sizzle-pop of energy fire resounded off the walls. A heavy smell of ozone and fried meat began to fill the air.

Heidi was almost knocked off her feet as others rushed around her, scrambling aft to avoid what was coming for them.

The terror in their faces told her corralling them would be useless. If she and Halling didn't move, they'd get stranded in the sea of bodies. Halling took point, fighting against the constricting flow. Heidi followed. When she looked back, the corridor was already becoming packed tight. The air was stifling. As Heidi shadowed Halling, it became difficult to ignore the reality that meeting the hostile force was foolhardy. There was little doubt in her mind the captain was incapacitated or dead, which meant she didn't have an employer anymore.

Heidi made the hairsbreadth decision to hide when they came across a smuggler's compartment. Halling ignored it utterly. He probably didn't even know it existed. In the chaos it was easy for Heidi to fall back and pry the panel off the wall. Halling kept going, rounding the corner.

The panel came off in a shower of grime. Heidi hurried in and closed it before anyone could follow, pulse rifle knocking against her back. Within seconds darkness encased her, save for the light outlining the panel itself. Compartments like this one ran like vermin tunnels, built with escape in mind. Maneuvering was tight. Heidi felt constricted on all sides. Outside in the corridor it sounded like a plasma-bomb released in a tin can. She started shimmying further down the tunnel, blindly groping as she entered the bowls of the ship.

Then it went quiet.

Heidi huddled in the dark, sweating, straining her ears for the familiar hum of machinery. The engine was powered down. _Eyopiax_ listed in space like a wounded animal, groaning whenever her bow labored against the other ship's ventral plating. Heidi forced herself forward. With the ship overrun, it would a matter of time before she was found and incapacitated. The last thing she wanted was to die like a scurrying fugitive, stinking of her own sweat.

At last she made it to the other end of the smuggler's tunnel. Light leaked around the edges of the panel. One corner was melted from energy fire and provided a peep hole. Heidi gingerly peered through. She counted at least forty passengers huddled in the centre of the cargo hold. Some sported wounds, but most were unhurt. With her limited view she could only see four soldiers standing by them. They wore black, nondescript uniforms.

"Take ten to the inception chambers," someone said. "Dispose the rest."

Heidi frowned. Inception chambers?

There was a brief period of confusion as passengers were lined against the bulkhead and shot. It was over in minutes. When the hijackers finished they bullied the ten survivors out of the cargo hold. As eerie silence descended the once-chaotic hold, Heidi tried to ignore her pounding heart as she weighed her options.

One: stay aboard and hope the hijackers move on, but there was a glaring chance they'd destroy _Eyopiax_ to hide the evidence.

Two: find _Eyopiax_'s escape pods. Again, the hijackers probably destroyed them, and even if they hadn't, the pods were meant for short-range rescue. This far out in deep space meant there was a good chance the pod would become her coffin.

That left her a third option: board the hijackers' ship and hide until she could find a way off.

Not a lot of choices. Heidi removed the panel, taking care not to let it clang as she slipped into the hold. It was only when she was out in the corridor did she realize her grip on the pulse rifle was white-knuckled.

Heidi soon found a straggling hijacker. He was meandering slowly, checking each side corridor with disinterest, not watching behind him. She snuck close then slammed the butt of her rifle against his neck. He went down in a crumpled heap. After pulling him away from the main hallway she stripped out of her guard smock. Thank all the gods he's short, she thought as she wiggled into his uniform. The helmet was a little big, but it'd work. After shoving his body down a maintenance shaft, she hurried in the direction of the procession. A few glanced her way when she caught up, but no one remarked her appearance.

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.s.

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The passengers were herded through the hard seal between the two ships. Halling had been right. The hijackers had connected through _Eyopiax'_s command deck. Heidi glanced over. The captain slouched dead in his chair, a blast hole replacing his face. She looked away. He'd given her a job when few others would. Though they were never friends, she had respected him.

Heidi entered the bowels of the new ship and immediately recognized the Weyland-Yutani Corp's utilitarian design. That, and the oversized WEYLAND-YUTANI: THE UNIVERSE IS INFINITE. TAKE A FRIEND ALONG poster on the wall. Her stomach turned. The Company had fucked enough of her life already. She remembered the procession of Company lawyers and child psychologists

—_what can you remember? What can you remember? What can you_—

after the massacre of LV-972. Yet nothing about the situation was adding up. There was something she didn't like, something beyond the usual murder and pirating. Unless this was a Company-sanctioned raid, these hostiles had commandeered one of its ships. They couldn't have acted alone, she realized. The Company was one of Earth's best-guarded and maintained fleets, and these fuckers stole from them? No way. Maybe the Company was behind it all. Maybe all of this was sanctioned. Her hands clenched.

There was no saving the prisoners. Heidi would've had to take kill every hijacker and commandeer the ship, both of which was a fool's errand. She'd be dead in minutes. No, the best she could do would be to report to the authorities so no one else died. And maybe expose whatever the hell Weyland-Yutani Corp was trying to pull, if they were somehow involved in this.

Once all ten passengers were aboard the new vessel, they were led through a corridor different from the others. It was dimly lit and cooler. Maybe it was Heidi's growing paranoia, but it seemed the corridors were narrower, as if converging on some unseen point, trapping them all.

One of the walls became a giant stretch of reinforced glass, thicker than six inches. Some sort of viewing theatre? Heidi held back, slowing enough so the others didn't notice. Pretending to fiddle with her rifle's straps, she observed the room. It was sterilized white, filled with metal biobeds and monitors. There was no one inside.

She was wasting time. Heidi was fully prepared to leave, already turning to follow the disappearing procession, had it not been for a movement out of her peripheral. It was hardly a flicker, but something made her look nonetheless. She regretted it instantly, heart freezing.

She stared at a Xenomorph.

The cadaverous visage was worse than any nightmare her mind could ever dream up. How long did she stare at it, and it, her? It could've been hours or seconds, its ugly, sightless face peering with unerring precision onto her own. It was big, bigger than she thought, its elongated skull half the length of her body. It was ribbed in a biomechanical design, lending it a malevolent intelligence, unidentifiable to anything she'd ever encountered.

Heidi remembered enough of the late Ellen Ripley's 2179 deposition vids to recognize this was a drone, a worker of its Hive. Not that it gave her any comfort. This monster was a scourge, a small part of a larger tableau of destruction.

A Xenomorph, here, on the ship. Suddenly what the hijackers said made sense and her stomach became a knot in her boots. She wanted to move, but her brain kept screaming stillness was the best defense. This was worse than horrific. It was mad. Everyone knew Xenomorphs served no master outside their Queen, heeded no artificial call. They were a destructive entity all to their own. Everyone knew that.

The Xenomorph moved out of the shadows and closer to the glass, its terrible face still aimed straight at hers, crawling on the ground on its hands and too-long legs. Whether by accident or design, it had a small x-shaped scar where one of its eyes should've been. It all Heidi could do not to swing her rifle and keep pressing the trigger until she or it was dead.

"Admiring our friend?"

Heidi almost blasted the man's face off but recovered at the last second. She lowered the pulse rifle. The man didn't seem interested in her answer but continued smiling as if the Xenomorph wasn't inches from his face. Tall, weaponless, he was poised in an aura of calm she'd yet seen from anyone. Gray streaked his hair.

The longer Heidi stared at him, the more she recognized his type. He was the tallest fool in the corral, the bigwig himself. Unless she was misreading the man, she was looking at the leader of the outfit. Heidi held herself very still, suddenly torn between shooting the murderer between the eyes or not. But if she did, there was a chance she'd be caught and have a facehugger's proboscis shoved down her throat. Her grip on her gun tightened. She would take care of that before it could happen.

"Beautiful, isn't it," the man kept saying, indifferent to her, eyes fixated on the Xenomorph. From how reverent his tone was, he could've been talking about an act of God. "The way it's not held back by pity or remorse. What's it thinking? What does it want? It tells you nothing, yet you know it understands."

What the actual fuck? She wanted to be sick.

A new soldier jogged up to them. "Sir," he said, pausing for breath. His eyes flicked at the Xenomorph then away. "They're here."

"Already?" the man said. He pulled up his arm and revealed a wristwatch. It was an old-fashioned thing, with an actual dial and hands. Heidi hadn't seen one in a decade. "They're early. Hmn, it shouldn't be an issue. I'm sure they'll be pleased with what we've prepared nonetheless. Did you set the self-destruct for the transport?"

"Not yet, sir."

"Good. Initiate it after our guests have left. We don't want them getting spooked."

"Yessir."

Heidi closed her eyes. With Xenomorphs involved, maybe getting blown up with _Eyopiax_ wasn't a bad idea after all.

The man pressed a button Heidi hadn't noticed on the wall. "Sokolov!"

There was a momentary burst of static. "Mr. Ward, sir."

"Initiate transfer of the experiment to 2-E34, please. I want this one on display."

"Right away."

Mr. Ward and the soldier turned to go. Heidi snapped to attention when the man suddenly speared her a sharp glance.

"Well, soldier? What am I paying you for?" Mr. Ward said.

Heidi did as she was instructed, playing along. Inside, her guts felt coated in ice. She tried to think of any BOLOs for a Ward on the Company criminal database, but none came to mind. Before this moment, she'd never heard of him. She looked over her shoulder. The Xenomorph was gone, the only evidence of its presence the drool on the glass.

…

_TBC_


	2. ii

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"We don't even ask happiness, just a little less pain."  
—Charles Bukowski

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.s.

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Heidi, Mr. Ward, and the soldier entered a huge cargo bay half the size of a football field. In the centre were two depressions in the floor, like underground pits. Despite them appearing open Heidi could hear the hum of energy fields. _Keeping something inside_, she thought. Guards stood at the four corners of both squares, each sporting a strange canistered weapon Heidi had never seen. Weaponized liquid nitrogen?

"You."

Heidi turned to the soldier. He motioned upwards to the catwalk encircling the hold. "On the second level with Solomon. Don't fucking shoot unless you have orders to."

"Yes, sir," she said, forgetting. The moment the words left her mouth she froze.

The soldier paused, frowning. "Your voice modulator is acting up again, Higgins," he said after a moment. "Get it fixed."

Heidi nodded before making her way up to the metal stairs to the landing. There were three others with her, all along regular intervals. One of them must've been Solomon. She'd done enough security detail to pretend to stand guard. Internally, she was sweating. That'd been close.

Too close.

Before she could descend into paranoia, the main bay doors opened. Two forms stepped out, dwarfing the soldiers following them. At first Heidi thought they were a new kind of souped-up marine. Then her guts felt like they'd been put through a grinder. Years ago she'd told the Company's child psychologists she didn't remember anything from LV-972, but that'd been a lie. She'd forget her own mother's face before forgetting what she'd seen in the fog. She remembered being

—_trapped and huddling and wondering if she was next. She prayed for the awful screaming to end, and when it finally did, the silence was almost worse_—

terrified for her life. Only something inhuman could be responsible for the evisceration of her colony.

Yautja. Predators.

Both creatures appeared built for war, dressed in complex body armor over a net suit, each covered in exotic weaponry. Tubes descended from elongated crowns and draped their shoulders like dreadlocks. The shorter one had a belt slung across its body while the other carried a strange shoulder-mounted weapon. Both wore scratched masks. Despite being outnumbered six to one they walked with confidence, not bothering to look at the guards tracking their movements.

Heidi tensed as the taller one seemed to peer in her direction, sickened déjà-vu crawling over her. The mask's design seemed familiar. The moment was over as the man-hunter turned its attention to Mr. Ward. The guards fanned out. Mr. Ward spread both his hands in greeting as the two aliens stopped before him.

"Yautja warriors, welcome. If you'd given us a little more time, we would've prepared more Xenomorphs for you," he said, pausing to swallow. Sweat glinted off his face. He gestured to the pit on the left and continued, "Of course, that isn't to say we don't have specimens ready for your approval. If you'd look for yourself, I'm sure you'll be excited to know this one is different. We took this one from a desert planet not too far from this quadrant."

Neither hunter moved to inspect the pit. From their body language, they seemed unimpressed.

Mr. Ward kept pointing at it, nodding. "It's shown to be receptive to commands. Maybe it'll come as a great benefit for you. Possibly . . . even worth an extra tidbit about your cloaking technology?"

Heidi didn't know what was worse: the Xenomorph in the lab, or the fact this outfit seemed to be in partnership with these man-killers. At least, that's what she thought, until the taller yautja took two big strides forward and stuck wrist blades deep in a soldier's chest.

For a heartbeat no one moved, shocked. The yautja was already moving to attack a second guard before someone shouted, "Shoot! All units, shoot!"

Heidi didn't need to be asked twice and fell into place, lining for a shot. A garbled scream to her left revealed a third monster on the catwalk. It'd been with them all along, invisible. Now it mowed soldiers down with blue energy from its shoulder cannon, blasting everyone into chunks. Heidi scrambled to get out of its way, not even bothering to engage. She was starting to leap down the stairs when a stray energy shot clipped her shoulder.

Corkscrews of pain burst behind her eyes as she tumbled ass-over-heels down the steps. She landed in a heap at the bottom, helmet flying. Heidi laid there, stunned, waiting for the ringing in her ears to stop. Moving hurt. Thinking hurt. She hissed as she tried to prop herself on her elbows. The uniform shielded her from most of the damage, but it still smarted like damn. Her shoulder smoked.

She looked across the hold and saw the taller predator break a guard's arm and throw him into a pit. The guard passed through the energy field with a scream. His screams cut short beneath a sudden explosion of screeching. The yautja seemed amused. It tossed two more guards in and watched as they disintegrated under the screeches.

Heidi's gorge rose. She should've known the pits held Xenomorphs.

Thudding steps reminded her she needed to worry about herself. The third yautja was descending the steps one at a time, pausing at each one. It wore armor on both shoulders, giving it a broader appearance than the other two. Metal greaves covered its lower legs. When she saw the metal codpiece, she guessed it was a _he_. She glanced behind her. The pulse rifle had spun several feet away during the fall. She scrambled to reach it but an energy blast dissolved it to burning metal. She rolled onto her back. The shoulder cannon focused on her but didn't fire. He was toying with her.

Heidi crabwalked backwards, desperate to put distance between her and him. She looked to the cargo bay doors, hoping to see soldiers swarm in. The doors stayed closed. Either reinforcements were taking their sweet-ass time, or they weren't coming at all. She had a sinking feeling she knew the answer.

More shouting broke out, more miniature explosions. Heidi could hear Mr. Ward yelling _You can't do this, we had a deal!_

The armored yautja finished the stairs and now fetched a kick to Heidi's hip. The force of the blow lifted her off the ground. When she landed her teeth clacked together, nearly amputating the tip of her tongue. She forced her aching body to run, adrenaline overriding the pain. She'd taken no more than six limping strides when a heavy hand clamped her shoulder and threw her backwards. After a moment of weightlessness Heidi slammed into the wall. She fell to the floor, black stars clouding her vision.

When she reopened her eyes she saw the yautja looming over her, his big clawed feet by her cheek. Heidi cried out as she was suddenly hauled upright by her hair, scalp on fire. She held onto the yautja's wrist in an attempt to lessen the pain and kicked with all her strength. Making contact was like hitting a brick wall. After several hits she was shaken like a rag doll. Her neck felt like it was going to snap under the torque. When the shaking stopped she hung dazed, feet dangling. She didn't kick again.

She was lifted further and brought close to the mask. Through her tears of pain she saw the metal was chipped and pockmarked. In the mask's centre was an old design nearly erased under scars. The eye lenses were dark, hiding the viewer beneath.

In a moment of sheer lunacy, she hocked a loogie into one of them. The yautja erupted with a snarl, head rearing back.

"Fuck you," she said.

The snarl turned into an ominous hiss as the fist tightened in her hair. The mask returned to regard her. Slowly, with one hand, he unhooked two hoses from the side of his head. They released with pressurized hisses and fell away. He gripped the edge of his mask and lifted.

Deep-set yellow eyes blazed at her from beneath heavy brows, frighteningly expressive. They were the only part of him humanlike; the rest was straight out of a horror story. Two sets of tusked mandibles twitched and converged around a lipless, toothy maw. Spikes dotted the sides of his heavy brows and crown, blending with the speckled reptilian skin. Just like the mask, it looked like an old mark was scratched out on his forehead.

He jerked forward and a wad of something green and foul-smelling suddenly splattered her nose and mouth. She snorted and gagged as she used a hand to scrub it off.

He made a sharp repeated _hrrn hrrn hrrn_ sound. He was laughing at her.

Heidi glared, hating. Suddenly the yautja put her down and began walking towards the others of his kind. He seemed content to drag her, fist still tangled in her hair. She had no choice but to stagger after him with her head bowed.

When they'd reached the pits she was shoved to her knees and released. Chunks of her scalp felt like they were missing as she cradled her head, hissing. From the corner of her eye she noticed Mr. Ward similarly on his knees. He was bleeding from a cut above his eye. A quick survey revealed they were the only two humans left alive in the cargo hold.

Maybe the others have abandoned ship. She didn't blame them. Lord knows she would've done the same thing. The place resembled a war zone, smoking viscera littering the floor. The stink reminded her of cooking pig testicles. A hiss drew her attention to the pits. From her angle she could see the glistening black domes of four Xenomorphs in the right-hand one.

The belted predator gestured at her and growled something at the third yautja. He was redder than the other two, covered in scars. The taller one was tan. Both bore a row of dark chest quills. Heidi squinted. She could've sworn she'd seen them before. Both predators were bleeding florescent green but neither seemed to notice, or care.

Mr. Ward tried to stand. "Please, if you're unhappy, tell us how to fix this. We'll give you the bugs and you can just leave us in pea—"

The red yautja punched him in face. Teeth scattered like bloody hail as Mr. Ward spun to the floor. One pinged Heidi's cheek. The man was struggling on all fours when the yautja straddled him and punched his shoulder. There was an audible crack and Mr. Ward caved inward, collapsing with an agonized wheeze. He stayed down.

"No deal," the yautja gurgled in a rough approximation of Mr. Ward's voice.

"Doh'n unnersan," Mr. Ward said. Bloody saliva dripped from his chin. His mouth was destroyed. "Wha he we hoo wong?"

"No deal," the yautja said again, and Heidi could've sworn he sounded smug.

Mr. Ward groaned as he was forced to his feet. The arm attached to the damaged shoulder dangled uselessly. Then the yautja shoved him. Mr. Ward's good arm pinwheeled as he fought for balance, but it was too late. He crossed the energy field's threshold and landed among the bugs. His cry of _No!_ turned into a shriek of agony as he was eviscerated.

_How do you like your Xenomorphs now?_ Heidi thought. Though he deserved his death, she turned her head so she wouldn't see the carnage. Not that it mattered. She couldn't drown out the gristly crunches, nor would it change her fate. Her bile rose and she tried not to vomit.

Clicking from the yautja brought her back. As she stared at them, her face flushed hot. She had seen them. All three. They

_—had stepped out of the fog like demons, covered in gore. She could smell the blood on them over the river, and suddenly she wondered if they could smell her terror—_

probably didn't remember her. Why would they? She'd hidden among the buildings, staying one step ahead. She was a child then. Now she was in her early thirties, a grown woman.

"You motherfuckers," she said.

Their noises stopped. At first she thought she'd gotten their attention and were about to retaliate, but they were all looking above her as if surveying the area, or hearing an unknown sound. The red yautja snarled.

Heidi was still wondering what had their interest when the armored one took her shoulder and shoved her into a pit.

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.s.

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Landing jarred all the air from Heidi's lungs. Pain flared in her kneecaps, hips, and ribs. Her hand squelched in someone's guts as she tried to sit straight and she shuddered in disgust. She turned her head and instantly regretted it, breath catching.

A single Xenomorph crouched in the pit by a small door, its segmented tail curved around its feet. It could've been the same Xenomorph from the lab, blood lathering its mouth. She didn't move, frozen. When it leapt for her she shouted and brought an arm up. It was a stupid reaction: there was no defense. They slammed together, the monster pressing her against the wall, slobbering mouth inches from her face. Heidi's eyes screwed shut, waiting for the inevitable.

When the pain never came, Heidi cracked an eye. The Xenomorph still there, hissing between its teeth, hovering like a reaper. Its caustic smell filled her nose. She was close enough to count the individual wrinkle of its lips. Even the man-killers who murdered the colony on LV-972 seemed tame compared to this horror. As she wondered when the Xenomorph would get over its strange hang-up and kill her, it stepped back. Heidi stayed where she was, body like cement. The Xenomorph retreated two more steps before dropping to all fours, head swinging. Watery drool puddled to the floor as it returned to its vigil at the door.

Heidi's legs gave out. She collapsed to the floor and was quietly sick. _How am I alive,_ she thought as she wiped her mouth clean. A hand rose to touch her chest, fisting the fabric. There was only one reason a Xenomorph wouldn't kill: the host was already carrying an embryo. Heidi immediately dismissed this. Unless Xenomorphs had a new way of spawning, there was no way she'd been impregnated without her knowledge. But then why spare her? She eyed the carnage dripping off the walls. It hadn't anyone else.

Her eyes traveled further to the top of the pit. It was empty. They didn't even stay to watch her die. She rested her head against the wall. Every muscle burned as if she'd gone two rounds in a boxing ring, body singing with pain. If she was a synthetic she'd bet her HUD would've been covered with _you're seriously screwed_.

Alive. She was alive. But for how long? Even though the Xenomorph hadn't killed her yet, it was a matter of time before it did. Was it saving her for some worse purpose?

"What's taking so long?" Heidi said, more to herself than it. She couldn't tell which was worse, getting torn apart or the anticipation of it. She almost wished the bug would finish her. Heidi checked her person, patting down pockets and compartments for anything useful as a weapon. Her search revealed a standard-issue military blade strapped to a lower pocket. She stared at it. It'd be as useful as a toothpick in a gunfight.

Suddenly an urge made itself known and Heidi swore. She hadn't gone to the bathroom since the morning and the pressure was becoming unbearable. Wouldn't that be perfect. She could already see the Xenomorph attacking her while she pissed. She'd survive the hijackers, the yautjas' initial attack, and now to die with her pants down? If there was a god, it was laughing at her.

Slowly, desperate not to be noticed, Heidi moved her body into position and lowered her pants. Relief was immediate. She finished as quickly as she could, trying not to think of the humiliation of the moment, peeing in a cage with a Xenomorph after three yautja left her for dead.

As she stood the Xenomorph swung its head towards her, lips wrinkling.

"Are you going to finish this now?" she said between clenched teeth. Heidi grabbed the blade strapped to her shin and brought it up. She hissed back. Fuck it. "C'mon!"

The Xenomorph rose to stand as a man, towering. When it came at her, she was ready to die. She watched herself swing the blade as if miles away, clinically aware her grip was too tight, her body too tense. She'd been taught better. When the bug knocked the blade away with an almost careless backhand, Heidi observed it had six digits but the four middle ones connected to form two double-fingers. Stupid, useless detail.

The bug grabbed her right arm with a strength she couldn't hope to break and steered her towards the door. It maneuvered her arm into position in front of a small scanner and forced her in place until the panel beeped. The door opened with a pneumonic hiss.

It let her go for a second time, shoving her aside to climb into the tunnel. Within seconds it was gone, the tunnel echoing with its leathery, insectile rustling.

Heidi stumbled back on rubbery legs. She glanced down at the arm the Xenomorph held and saw the ID that'd been there the whole time, small and discreet. If the bug wanted the ID, then why not take the arm for itself? Or even the jacket? Why did it need her alive for its purposes? Heidi wanted to be sick again, if only from the sheer emotional whiplash of expecting to die and being spared. She waited for the nausea to pass. Deep breaths. She wasn't dead yet.

Yet. She tried to ignore the sickening uncertainty the word carried. It was as if her neck was in a noose and any minute the plank beneath her feet would drop.

Heidi tried scavenging through the bodies for a weapon better than a knife, but all the guns had been intentionally smashed or twisted beyond recognition. The Xenomorph had been thorough. She had no choice but to retrieve the knife she'd dropped. She looked up again. Her choices now where to stay in the pit and risk the yautja returning, or follow the Xenomorph into the unknown.

Either way, she was fucked. As she debated, she heard the bugs in the pit over hissing and scrabbling at the wall. Those at least didn't hesitate to kill. Heidi shuddered, choice made.

The tunnel was long and dark, not unlike the smuggler shafts on _Eyopiax_. She walked in a stooped hunch to avoid hitting her head. It made her wonder how the hell the Xenomorph could fit, especially with its back tubules. When Heidi reached the end of the tunnel she gingerly peered out. It was the same med lab she'd seen earlier. She winced against the sterile brightness. It even smelled sterile. When her eyes adjusted she stepped into the room, searching for the bug.

She found it crouching by a large sealed door, teeth bared. It swung its head and seemed to watch her, waiting. It made no move to attack. Heidi didn't approach, glancing at the door. There was no internal scan pad, not this time. It opened from the outside only. Keeping a wary eye on the Xenomorph, Heidi moved to the observation deck and touched the smooth surface, her breath fogging the glass. If she concentrated she could hear muffled, sporadic gunfire. A scream was cut short.

_I have to find the shuttle bay,_ she thought. Had to get off this fucking ship. Maybe there was chance not all the vessels were taken. Heidi turned to face the cadaverous gatekeeper. It still hadn't left its post. Heidi squared her shoulders. If it hadn't hurt her yet, maybe it wouldn't hurt her now.

She approached with careful steps and drew the knife. The Xenomorph hissed softly, low and menacing.

"Easy," Heidi said. Her heart pounded in her ears. "I'm just checking the door."

Its hisses subsided, its double-fingered hands clenching and unclenching. When it still didn't rip her face off, she sidled up to the padded wall, trying hard to ignore the monster several feet away. She felt around for where the access port would be on the other side, sweat dripping down her neck. After some guesstimating, she took the knife and carved a hole through the padding, revealing a mess of wires beneath. She kept digging until she found the access port's backing.

_Please fucking work,_ she thought, then pushed and wiggled the knife through. Twice a live wire stung her. After several moments something snapped and the door opened with a mechanical whoosh. Heidi stepped back, eyes wide. Holy shit, she did it—

The Xenomorph stormed past her, running like a human into the corridor. Then it was gone, leaving Heidi alone for the first time since _Eyopiax_ was boarded. She placed a hand over her ribcage and waited for the meat beneath to settle. Adrenaline left her lightheaded and jittery. She didn't understand at all why it spared her, but she wasn't going to ask questions now. What mattered was finding the shuttle bay.

But before she could take her first step, Heidi stopped.

She'd been to Earth, once. After the events of LV-972, she was processed there with other orphans from other failed Weyland-Yutani colonies. It'd been a cold place in the far north of Old Europe. During an outing she'd left her keepers and stood on a rocky shoreline overlooking an ocean. It was after a storm, mist and wind stinging. Cut off from the others, Heidi remembered being filled with a desolate loneliness, as if she were the last human alive. _Endling._ But Heidi wasn't an endling. She was one among billions. But in that moment, alone on the shore, she'd felt the last of her species, staring out at a world without future. There was no mercy in the sea. What would've happened, she had wondered, if she walked into the churning waters and kept going, to have the ocean consume her like the past had consumed her future?

Heidi clenched a fist. She had run and hid her whole life, looking out for no one but herself, and where did it get her? She'd just squatted like an animal in a pit. By sheer dumb luck she was still alive, but maybe this was the universe telling her to wake the fuck up and stop running.

…

_TBC_


	3. iii

.

"Her one drink had Cecelia giggling and talking and she was explaining that animals had souls too. Nobody challenged her opinion. It was possible, we knew. What we weren't sure of was if we had any."  
―Charles Bukowski, Women

.

.

.s.

.

Heidi needed weapons, fast.

She'd only been on a few Weyland-Yutani ships in her career, but all roughly followed the same design. She had a hunch where the nearest small arms locker would be, and if lucky, find it stocked. Heidi left the med lab and hurried down the opposite corridor the Xenomorph had gone, keeping to a crouching run. The passageways were quiet, eerie in their emptiness. Twice there were clumps of what appeared to be discarded skin, but she didn't stop the check. When Heidi entered the ship's second level she stopped, the hairs on her neck prickling. She hunkered by a maintenance conduit and waited. Seconds ticked by. No yautja appeared, but that didn't give Heidi any comfort. It was as if

_—skinned bodies dangled from the rafters, their hands reaching for her. Blood fell on her upturned face as she stared at them. Her friend Mao was up there too, no older than she was, teeth bared in a lipless, ghastly smile—_

she was on a dead ship. Had everyone from Mr. Ward's outfit died? Heidi somehow doubted it; the roaches were always the last to go. She left the maintenance conduit. When she eventually found door with with the yellow SMALL ARMS marker, she resisted the urge to whoop. Bingo.

Heidi flashed her ID against the scanner and the door hissed open. Most of the racks were empty. Pillaged ammo boxes littered the floor. There were a few .357 revolvers, several flares, a stun baton, and a broken pulse rifle. Still, she thought as she took two guns, the stun baton, and whatever ammunition was left, better than nothing. The gun's weight felt good in her hands, but it was a deceptive comfort. The yautja had bled from several gunshot wounds and didn't even sneeze. If her little handhelds were to make the difference, she'd have to aim for their eyes or throat. She wished for some armor piercing rounds.

She was armed, but still blind. Heidi left the locker and headed towards the ship's communications facility, hoping to score a motion detector. Maybe even send out a distress signal? She hadn't taken thirty steps when she heard footsteps headed towards the locker. Heidi ducked around a corner. Three soldiers ran past. They looked like they'd gone five rounds with a enraged bull, each wounded and disheveled. They opened the locker's door and swore. Heidi let them go. Something worse would kill them eventually, and she needed her bullets for a bigger target.

She was halfway to communications when the ship's interior took a faintly organic turn. Resin coated the walls the deeper she went. When Heidi gave it an experimental stroke, her fingers came back sticky. It was like touching snotty pine sap. Unease rose in her as she wiped her hand clean. Maybe there was another way to the comm. room?

No, she realized. It didn't matter the route. Xenomorphs were altering the ship. That was what happened to the failed Hadley's Hope colony in 2179—on many failed colonies, in fact. Other bugs must've escaped their cages somehow, she thought. The transformation was still in the early stages, but the ship would eventually be overrun. Time was running out.

Heidi kept going, eying every maintenance shaft and corner for movement. The air began to smell weird, like sewage mixed with salt water. At one point she noticed a room missing its door. She slowed, frowning. The door looked like it had been forced open from the outside, live circuitry sparking along the jagged edges. Heidi primed her gun and approached cautiously, ready to shoot anything that moved. She planned to keep going but the scene inside stalled her.

_Looks like I found the inception chambers,_ Heidi thought. Morbid curiosity made her pause. It interior was more prison than lab, complete with black-yellow hazard containment strips on the floor. The corpses of _Eyopiax_'s passengers were strapped to gurneys, each with a collecting chamber over their chests. Each bore the same mortal wound: their ribs flowered outwards, the inner meat pulverized. The collecting chambers were streaked with blood, as if something had thrashed around before being removed.

There were ten passengers but eleven victims. Her stomach bottomed out as she recognized the last man. She moved closer, caution warring with guilt.

"Halling?" she said. Like the others, he was bound with a collecting chamber positioned over his chest. But unlike the others, the chamber was clean.

At first she thought he was already dead, skin ashen. Then her guard partner turned his head to her. He looked like shit.

". . . Glassman?" he said. "How did—what are you doing here?"

Heidi hurried to his side. "I'll cut you free," she said, taking out her knife.

Halling shook his head. "Wait, stop. Don't. I've got a thing inside me. I can feel it—" he grimaced, choking, "—moving."

Guilt tasted like iron as she lowered the knife. "I'm sorry. For leaving your six."

Halling gave a corpse's smile. "Kill me and we'll call it even."

She didn't know what else to say. Had she'd followed him through _Eyopiax_, she could've shared his fate. Now he would die a soldier while she lived a coward. _No,_ Heidi thought, hand tightening around the knife. She was going to change that.

"I don't know how much time I've goaaaaah!" His face contorted in agony as his sternum visibly surged upwards. "Glassman, now!"

"Bye, Jacob." Heidi brought her gun to bear and shot him between the eyes. Halling slumped in the bindings, face slacking. Even in death he seemed in pain.

Seconds later his chest erupted, a pale worm thing slipping into the chamber. The necrotrophic Xenomorph nymph wiggled and squealed, fighting against its confines. The glass was military grade, impervious to bullets, but there was a seal at the top for extraction. C'mon, girl, let's do this. After steeling herself, Heidi yanked the top open and shot inside, striking the nymph twice. It exploded into acidic chunks. Heidi covered her nose and mouth as the container dissolved in a cloud of foul-smelling steam. One less bug to worry about, she thought. It was hard to imagine such a little thing growing into a creature of destruction. Even its blood destroyed.

Something clicked behind her.

Heidi whirled around. A yautja stood not five feet away. It—_he_—was huge, seven and a half feet, corded with lean muscle and layered with patches of multi-plated armor. A plasma cannon perched on his shoulder. His skin was darker than the others', nearly black, though his abdomen and chest were gray. Scars criss-crossed every surface. His tresses were longer than the other hunters, stopping at his middle back. Most strands were gunmetal gray, a few white. The mask was angular, the crown covered in unfamiliar script. The mask shined from meticulous care.

Heidi whipped her gun up. Despite his size the yautja lunged with frightening speed, striking it down even before she had a chance to fire. She tried lashing with the baton but again the yautja swiped it away as if it were nothing more than a plaything. Heidi saw an opening and darted to the side. She was almost through the exit when a meaty hand captured her neck and tightened in warning. Heidi froze, still sore from the previous shaking.

Heidi suffered his scrutiny as the yautja pulled her back to study, the dark lenses unfriendly. Years ago she'd caught her hand in a piece of machinery. Staring into the predator's mask brought back the same surge of panic she'd felt then. The clamped pressure made it hard to stay calm. She didn't spit, not this time. If she did, Heidi had the feeling she would die in the same room as Halling.

The black yautja rattled lowly, head tilting. In one smooth motion he caught her left wrist and wedged it under his massive arm, trapping her. No matter how she shoved and jerked, he didn't react. It was like fighting a mountain. Something warm and heavy was cinched over her forearm.

The yautja let go and Heidi stumbled back, pawing at the thing now attached to her. It appeared similar to the wrist computer the predator wore.

"What the hell?" she said. She tried to pry it off. It didn't budged. "What the fuck did you put on me?"

The yautja pressed a button on his wrist computer. A line of red energy connected the two bands with a sharp _fzzzt_. When he moved his arm, hers was forced to move with it. Grunting, the black yautja began leaving the inception chambers, Heidi in tow. She tried dig her heels and resist, but the tether was implacable. She'd have more luck escaping if she'd been chained to an avalanche. _At least he isn't carrying me by my hair,_ she thought as she stumbled after him.

Black ignored her as they walked. For a massive creature covered in armor and skulls he moved in near-perfect silence; the only noise came from the tresses sliding against his shoulders. Heidi had never seen another yautja outside the three who killed everyone on LV-972. He seemed older than the others, deadlier. Yet she was still alive. There was no doubt others would've killed her by now, so why hadn't this one?

"What do you want from me?" she asked. When there was no response, she didn't bother asking again. She had a sinking feeling she wouldn't like the answer anyway.

At a certain point they reached the centre of four corridors. The hulking creature paused, slowly surveying the passages. If Heidi didn't know better, she'd say he was scouting them out. But for what? And why drag her along?

The yautja crouched down. He tinkered with his wrist computer before taking a small circular device and pressing it to the floor. Heidi jerked forward as the energy chain shortened. She could stand over the device but little else.

She'd seen enough hunts to know what this was. "I'm bait?" she said, incredulous.

He turned to leave.

Heidi struggled to follow but the arm band forced her over the device. "Wait, don't leave me here! Hey! Stop!"

Black tapped some buttons on his wrist computer and suddenly sizzled into invisibility. Heidi would've been impressed had she'd not been chained to the floor.

"You motherfucker, come back! Come back! You—" She bit her tongue. He wanted her to make noise. She'd never felt so powerless and insignificant.

After several moments of silence, her own voice emerged from the circular device. "Hey! Stop! You motherfucker, come back! Hey! Hey! Come back—" Heidi tried to shut or at least muffle it, but no matter how she tried, the sound remained clear. Frustration and fear bubbled over, threatening to break her defenses. Without weapons she was a sitting duck. The phantom noose around her neck tightened.

When Heidi heard the inevitable heavy steps, she stopped struggling and stood tall. Six soldiers rounded the corner, all armed. They stopped when they saw her, their weapons snapping in synchronized clicks.

"I don't recognize her. Do any of you?" one said.

"What does it matter? Let's go," another replied. He kept looking over his shoulder.

"I'm stuck," Heidi said, heart pounding. She wished the floor would open and swallow her whole. What a way to die.

The first one aimed his pulse rifle at her chest. "This is a mercy, sweetheart."

Before he could shoot, his head exploded.

At first Heidi thought the black predator had saved her, but what stormed into the corridor were the tan and armored ones. Tan's shoulder cannon whirred as it blasted another soldier. The armored yautja howled, wrist blades swinging. Four of Mr. Ward's men were dead before they could even return fire. A thunderous roar made everyone pause. Heidi turned and saw Black pounce into visibility, punching the armored one clean off his feet.

Heidi dropped to the floor and curled in a ball, hands pressed over her ears as the hallway devolved into chaos. Though it was two-against-one, the two were hard-pressed to recover their footing. Black close-lined Tan, raining blow after blow before his partner could distract him. The armored yautja rolled to avoid getting stabbed. Tan staggered back. He tried shooting with his shoulder cannon, but the weapon was destroyed. He kicked out with a snarl, but Black caught the leg. He punched the trapped knee so hard the leg snapped backwards. Tan screamed.

_Holy shit, they're gonna step on me,_ Heidi thought, fighting hysteria. The bitter musk was suffocating. She jolted and gasped when a soldier fell atop her. His blood soaked her uniform as he lay there, dead from a gaping gut wound. She struggled against the heavy weight.

When the body rolled off, she found herself looking at the wrinkled mouth of a Xenomorph.

It was too late to scream. Heidi could only stare as it leaned forward, mouth yawning wide. But instead of ripping her face off, it fitted its jaws around the yautja's contraption on her wrist. Heidi couldn't move, couldn't blink. She would've shit herself if her bowels weren't so paralyzed.

That's when she saw the small x-shaped scar. It was the Xenomorph from the pit.

When its teeth made no dent in the metal, the bug retreated. After a moment, it brought its knifed tail and skewered the circular device on the floor, cleaving in two. Heidi felt the sudden give and moved her arm. There was no resistance. She was free.

Heidi scrambled to her feet, turning in time to see Black tear Tan's head off.

.

.s.

.

Heidi clutched her knees, gasping for breath. The corridor was empty behind her, but she knew that meant nothing.

The Xenomorph dropped the dead soldier it was dragging and hissed.

"Wait. Let me rest for a second," Heidi said.

She'd barely finished speaking when the bug crossed the distance between them and grabbed her upper arm. It half-hauled, half-threw her forward. Some of her uniform ripped under its claws.

"Okay, I get it! I'm going!" she said, stumbling against the wall. "Christ!"

The Xenomorph resumed dragging the dead soldier, leading her towards the fore of the ship. She jogged to keep up. By the time it entered the Officer Quarters she was grateful to stop. The Xenomorph lurked in the corner closest to the door like a grotesque sentinel, pulling the soldier close. It buried its face into the man's gut wound, crunching and ripping. Heidi huddled at the far end, unable to look away from the gristly scene. That could've been her. It should've been. It still could.

"Why aren't you killing me?" she said. "Am I bait? Saving me for food?"

But the bug didn't react, didn't turn to her and speak in human voice to explain what it wanted. It was a Xenomorph, a world-destroyer, a creature whose survival meant the destruction of hers. Whatever its gain, it'd be her loss. Yet three times it could've killed her, and three times it didn't. It wanted something. She shuddered, wishing she still had her guns.

Heidi's eyes flew open. Guns!

She searched her body and almost laughed when she felt the .357's hard bulge. Of course! The black yautja knocked only one of them away. With everything that happened, she'd forgotten about the second one. _Thank you thank you thank you,_ she thought, cradling the piece to her chest. She checked her person for ammo and did a count. Twelve bullets. Two full clips. She eyed the Xenomorph. If she acted fast she could surprise it, but the .357 wasn't the biggest or strongest gun. There was a good chance all she'd do would infuriate it.

The bug had finished eating the man's internal organs and was now chewing one of the thighs, holding it like one would an ear of corn. Suddenly it paused, head shooting up. It held still for a moment, lips lifting. _Like an animal smelling fire,_ Heidi thought for no reason. It then stood to full height and strode to her, carrying the man.

Heidi barely had time to point the gun before the bug slapped it out of her hand, hissing. It pressed her to the floor, its strength like a steel bar across her back. She fought not to vomit as it threw the soldier's carcass over her like an obscene blanket. The smell of blood was overpowering. She huddled, terrified and revolted. The Xenomorph sat near her, its bony hip inches from her nose.

Then she heard the thundering of heavy bodies in the corridor. They didn't sound like soldiers. When a black, elongated head peered into the room, her Xenomorph screeched at it. The other flashed silver teeth, hesitated, then rejoined the others in the hallway.

Heidi kept quiet and still, focusing on her breathing. Minutes passed. At last she couldn't take it anymore and tore the man off to jump around in revulsion. She wanted to rip her own skin off and scrub herself clean.

She whirled on the bug. "Why are you protecting me? What the fuck do you want?"

The Xenomorph sat there. It made a sound she could only describe as a chuff, its breath a death-stench.

She turned away with a sound of disgust. "Goddamn you. If you're not going to tell me, I'm changing."

She pilfered through the officer's lockers, searching for clothing and food. She found a few energy bars and devoured them. She drank from a few water canisters before shimmying out of the blood-soaked guard's smock. She sunk into an officer's uniform. The material was military grade, form-fitting and bullet proof. They were made for Weyland-Yutani's top echelon._ I could get used to this,_ Heidi thought, smiling in the mirror.

Her smile fell. What was she doing, playing dress-up? Xenomorphs were roaming the halls as yautja were killing each other. Soon a bug would transform into a Queen, if it wasn't in transition already. She had no time for play. Heidi looked at the contraption Black attached to her forearm. The metal was smooth, latchless. Neither tight nor loose, there was no way to slip it off. Heidi recalled the insanity of meeting the older yautja and wondered. She'd figure a way to remove it later.

She took a deep breath and went to the main room. The Xenomorph was still there, picking at the soldier's remains. Only the uniform and the head remained untouched. She slowly bent down and retrieved the fallen gun. The bug stopped what it was doing to stare.

"I need to finish this," she said to it. "Do you understand? You have to let me go."

It begun to drool, strands falling to the floor. It dropped the soldier.

Heidi been close to the Xenomorph specimen several times before. Now she dared herself forward out of morbid curiosity. There was no glass wall between them, no doors to open or fighting yautja to avoid. Heidi stepped closer. She could touch it if she wanted. Then again, why the fuck not? It'd yet to kill her.

_I must be crazy,_ she thought, hand out. Its beauty was awful. She could see her warped reflection in its carapace. She suddenly wondered if the small x-shaped scar had anything to do with its behavior. Maybe the scientists had altered it in some way, or maybe they'd found already it like that.

Her fingertips barely brushed against its hard shell before it recoiled out of reach, hissing. It stood on two legs and towered over her, menacing. When she thought it would finally stop playing and kill her, it turned and loped into the corridor.

Heidi waited for her heartbeat to stop racing before rechecking her gun, strapping her knife, and following it out the door.

…

_TBC_


	4. iv

**A.N:** At last, the end of a story started way back in 2012. Hope you enjoyed it, and until the next adventure!

.

"grieve not for me.

read  
what I've written  
then  
forget it  
all.

drink from the well  
of your self  
and begin  
again."  
―Charles Bukowski, "Mind and Heart," _Come On In!: New Poems_

.

.

.s.

.

The Xenomorph didn't follow her like Heidi thought it would. They kept together for about a hundred feet before it veered off into a maintenance shaft. Heidi watched its dark tail curl upward and disappear. She waited for it to come back, but as minutes ticked away, she decided to move on, albeit slower. Heidi didn't want to admit it, but having the bug by her side was somewhat of a comfort. Now she was alone. Her gun felt small in her hands.

Heidi hurried aft, towards the last place she'd seen the yautja. She passed by several blood-splatters but no bodies. She'd guessed the other Xenomorphs had either eaten or spirited them away for some another purpose.

Heidi paused when she saw an auxiliary control centre. It was empty when she entered, though judging by the littered viscera in the corner, someone had died there. Green light flickered from several functioning screens. She sat down at a station. A taped photo of a smiling girl made her pause. The kid couldn't have been no more than ten. About how old she was, Heidi's guts clenching. She plucked the picture off the monitor and gently laid it flat.

The computer prompted for a password. Heidi glanced at the gory mess in the corner and, after a moment, got up and searched through the chunks of human bits before finding a keycard. After wiping it clean, she imputed its security code and got into the computer system. She tapped into the ship's security feed, hoping beyond hope to find—

Heidi's mouth stretched into a smile.

It was the armored yautja, standing against a wall on the lower third level. No, leaning. Though the feed was a little grainy, there was no mistaking the blood escaping a ferocious abdominal wound. It looked like something had punched through him. The black one. Heidi knew next to nothing about the species, but it was clear the two groups were enemies. She felt a flush of anger and humiliation. She still couldn't believe she'd been used as bait.

She spent a few more minutes looking through the feed for signs for the other two, but all she found were shadows of running Xenomorph. If she was going to do this, she would need to move fast.

Heidi left the auxiliary control room and hurried through the ship, grip tight on the gun. It wasn't long before she reached the third level. She slowed, keeping close to the far side of the hallways. Small puddles of bright green blood marked his trail. Musk turned the air heavy. Heidi was still disgusted at how it seemed to coat her mouth when she heard a deep, wet breathing. She crouched down, heart jumping. Heidi counted to five before peering around the bend.

The armored yautja was sitting on the floor, legs out, a hand pressed against his gut wound. Fluorescent blood covered his fingers and formed an ever-widening puddle. His head was lowered, saliva dripping from slack jaws. His mask was gone.

Heidi shifted without meaning to and the yautja came to life, head snapping her direction, mandibles spreading wide. The deep-set eyes locked with hers. He didn't move. He stayed on the floor, glaring, but little else. Heidi stood. The wound was worse up close. He was going nowhere.

"Remember me?" Heidi said. The armored yautja tracked her approach with a killer's focus as she moved closer, emboldened. "I'm the girl you couldn't kill. Remember? Remember now, you goddamn piece of shit—"

Quicker than thought possible the creature leapt from the floor and slammed her into the wall. Blood flecked her cheeks as he roared in her face. He was still roaring when Heidi fired upwards, through his mouth. The yautja staggered back. She shot again, this time in his eye. His snarl clotted as he fell back, hitting the floor with a heavy thud. She shot him three more times before remembering she needed to conserve bullets.

Heidi stood over the corpse, heart pounding. She actually killed him. Her lips lifted in a snarl as she spat on his upturned face.

Choke on that, bastard.

Before she could savor the moment, a roar of rage had her whirling her around. The red yautja stood at the end of the corridor, his bellow vibrating her bones. Heidi swung her gun and fired. The bullet ricocheted off his mask, causing him to shake his head like an enraged bull dislodging flies. She reloaded and shot twice into his chest and stomach, but Red kept pounding after her. Heidi turned and sprinted down the hallway. Seconds into the chase she made the mistake of looking back. The yautja had halved the distance and was gaining with each stride.

Heidi put on a burst of speed and skidded into a mess hall. She dove behind some metal cabinets just as the yautja burst in. She huddled lower, clapping a hand over her mouth. She tried to mask her breathing, her heart feeling like it would burst through her ribs like a Xenomorph nymph. Heidi glanced up. Red was reflected in the cookware as he headed in her direction, head moving in slow sweeps. She could hear his angry rattle as he moved deeper into the mess hall.

_"I ain't in a mood for jokes. C'mon out, now." _

Heidi dimly remembered that voice. But Frank Summers was dead, dead along with the rest of the colonists on LV-972. The voice bubbled and turned into something else.

_"C'mon out now, c'mon out—" _

Heidi shouted in surprise as the cabinet she was hiding behind suddenly slammed forward. She rolled, just barely avoiding getting flattened as it crashed. The cacophony of spilled pots and pans did nothing to cover the thunderous roar. Heidi looked in time to see Red reach for her. She shot twice. One went wide, but another lodged in the meat of his deltoid. He bellowed, blood splattering. Before she could fire again Heidi found herself thrown into the air.

Her bones squealed as she slammed into the ground. She wheezed, unable to pull air into her chest. The burning pain in her side meant nothing good. She curled, trying to find relief. A heavy hand wrapped around her ankle. Heidi barely had time to react when she was thrown again, this time onto a table. She skidded off the surface and crashed into the wall.

Red's voice gurgled, stopping short of forming words.

Heidi forced herself to sit upright despite her spinning head. Something warm was trickling down her neck. She glanced down at where the gun had spun out of her hands. It was two, maybe three feet away. Last two bullets. Then all she would have was her knife.

"C'mon, fucker," she said, launching herself at the gun.

Her hand barely touched the gun when the yautja was at her throat and hoisting her up. She choked as he held her aloft, dual blades springing out of his wrist. Without thinking she raised her arm to block the incoming stab. The blades ricocheted off her armband, squealing. One of the blades sliced her cheek before sinking into the wall behind her.

The yautja was still trying to get his blades free when he was ripped backwards. Heidi was torn from his grasp and fell to the ground, throat on fire. She looked up.

It was Black, shoulder canon powering down. He leaned against the wall as he waited for the other to come to his senses, as if bored. Red popped to his feet and issued the loudest roar yet, throwing his arms wide. Black began circling, growling guttural punches of sound at the smaller yautja. Red began to circle as well, responding in the same abrasive manner. He suddenly leapt forward, dual blades swinging, but Black must've seen a hint. He sidestepped the other's attack and gave one of his own, punching the other's face hard enough to fling the mask clean off. Red's exposed mandibles flared wide, tusks curled.

It was as if a switch was flipped. They collided in a murderous flurry of blows almost too fast to follow. Heidi felt she'd landed in a holo game vid. She started inching her way out of the mess hall, desperate not to get caught in the struggle, when she heard a leathery rustle. She peeked into the corridor. Glistening black faces smiled at her.

Heidi scrambled back as waves of Xenomorphs crashed into the mess hall. Both yautja disengaged to meet the new enemy. Black hit them like a silent torpedo, killing and slicing as if born to. Acid blood spurted. Plasma canon fire exploded. On the other side of the mess hall Red's attacks were wild, reactive. Without his mask the yautja seemed to have trouble distinguishing the bugs. He bled from half a dozen wounds, blood painting him green. One of his mandibles didn't move with the rest of them, limp meat.

Heidi was trying to make herself small when a hissing black face found her. Its drooling jaws gaped wide, secondary maw clenching and unclenching. Before the piston could punch a hole in her forehead, the bug was ripped away. Heidi looked in time to see another Xenomorph disemboweling it. Her heart skipped a beat.

_You,_ she thought. Besides than the x-shaped scar, the Xenomorph was identical to the other drones. Her bug gave no sign it'd seen her as it lifted its head to watch the chaos, yet she knew it was aware of her.

A pained snarl turned her head. It was Red, slicing his way through dead and dying Xenomorphs. He took out a knife from an arm holster and threw it as hard as he could at the older yautja. Black roared as the knife buried itself in his upper shoulder. He whirled around, throwing the bug he'd been wrestling at the younger one. The screeching Xenomorph collided with Red. As they rolled on the floor Red struggled to stab the killing wound, catching several claws to the face before subduing the bug.

Heidi was already running, knife in hand. She dodged acid-pitted holes in the floor and reached the red yautja's side just as he was getting up. Screaming, she slammed her knife as hard as she could into his neck, burying it to the handle. The resulting bellow blew her eardrum as she was backhanded into the wall. She tumbled ass-over-heels before landing on her side. Heidi spat a gob of blood, feeling her side burn.

Something heavy was stomping towards her.

"How'd you like that," she said, smiling at the approaching yautja.

Neon blood was pouring out of Red's fanged mouth. One hand was clamped at the junction where neck met shoulder, the other hand reaching for her. His eyes were blazing. Heidi didn't need to know his language to read the hatred there.

Two blades sprouted out Red's chest, spraying blood everywhere. He looked down, snarl knotting. He was still staring when the blades slid out. Red gripped the streaming wounds, coughing. Black shoved him and Red toppled like a felled tree. He didn't rise again. Heidi half expected him to move, to strike, to return like her nightmares and kill her for good, but he stayed down. Even his blood seeping over the floor was slowing.

It was done. Heidi slumped. It was finally done. She wanted to collapse and sleep forever. Or drink til she blacked out. Quiet descended in the mess hall. From her vantage point Heidi didn't see any other living Xenomorphs, only dead ones. That didn't mean there were others still hiding in the ship protecting the fledgling Queen, wherever she was. A strange moment passed where Heidi hoped her bug had escaped the carnage.

The black yautja made a clicking sound, head tilting. He knelt to examine the handle protruding from Red's neck. He pulled it out and examined the military-issue knife. Still kneeling, he turned to look at her, the mask's regard heavy.

Despite the exhaustion and pain Heidi pulled herself to her feet, not wanting to be on the floor like a hurt dog. Her ankle twinged from when Red had thrown her, but she clamped her expression to show nothing. Black likewise rose to his considerable height. He didn't seem to notice the fluorescent wounds covering his body. Did anything faze the fucker?

Heidi stiffened when he reached out to hand her knife back.

"Keep it," she said, shaking her head.

Black looked to the dead yautja, then back to her. He made an odd trilling noise before stashing her knife away. He then pulled something from his belt. It was a blade, about the size of her forearm. It was a mean, serrated thing. At first she thought he'd stab her with it, but when he offered it, handle first, Heidi blinked. This one she accepted, taking it as if in a dream. She hadn't held it for more than a few seconds but already knew it was a superior weapon. Despite its size it was lighter than her smaller military one, more balanced. Its catchlights gleamed like liquid light.

A horrid meaty sound had her see Black ripping Red's head off. Red's tongue lolled out like an obscene ribbon as Black finished removing it from the body. He deposited the head in a sack with an unceremonious toss.

It finally dawned on her. Black was a lawman.

Before the realization these man-killers had police—and therefore code of conduct, laws, and criminals—could overwhelm her, the yautja began pressing buttons on his wrist computer. Heidi couldn't stop the small gasp when the metal contraption on her arm sprang open and fell off. She rubbed her arm, feeling weirdly lost without it. Heidi barely had time to adjust when Black clicked at her.

A panel on his wrist computer popped a small circular device, not unlike the one that had acted as a tether. He pressed it to the floor, where it extended metal rods that anchored into the paneling. He rose, his computer now revealing hovering holographic symbols. He pointed at them, to the circular device, and then used his hand to mimic an explosion.

Heidi nodded, heartbeat spiking. She would've done the same—with its infestation of Xenomorphs, the ship was lost. Black pressed a button and an ominous beeping filled the air. Without further acknowledgement the hulking yautja gathered Heidi's arm band and left the mess hall, gristly bounty against his hip. She watched him leave, almost not quite believing. She glanced down at the dead yautja at her feet. Blood pooled around the neck stem. Heidi smiled.

The ship gave a long, shuddering groan, reminding her she'd die too if she didn't haul ass. She side-stepped acid holes and bug viscera as she hurried out of the mess hall, trying to ignore the burning in her side and ankle. Heidi forced her body into a shuffling jog, abandoning stealth for speed. All she had to defend herself was Black's knife. As lethal as it seemed, she wished for a gun. She wished she knew how much time she had before everything went pear-shaped. She looked over her shoulder. She prayed she had long enough to reach the shuttle bay, commandeer a vessel, and fly out of the blast radius.

By some miracle her luck held all the way to the bay. She saw neither Black nor any of the bugs, but she did hear faint squealing from various maintenance shafts. The salty sewage odor was now bad enough to make her breathe through her mouth. There were three ships in the bay, all mid-range standard-issue shuttles. Nothing fancy, but better than pods. She started for the nearest one, body aching, but faltered as she got close. A shadow had emerged from beneath the ship.

Her throat tightened.

The Xenomorph made no move to attack, but neither did it retreat, watching her with disturbing precision. The momentary relief knowing it had escaped the yautja's slaughter morphed into the familiar frustration. What could it possibly want now? Could it know the ship was to explode? Did it mean to save its Queen? But as Heidi scanned the area, it was clear it was alone. They were the only two creatures in the shuttle bay.

Heidi backed a step, then another. It watched. But as she made to move to the next ship it hissed and stood as a man. Despite their distance Heidi could imagine its rotten breath against her cheek, cold-hot. She froze, heart pounding. When she didn't move it hunkered back down again, teeth bared.

She didn't have to look at her knife to know it'd be next to useless against the bug. Its acidic blood would end her as surely as its hands or teeth could. Worse than that was the knowledge the main ship was set to detonate at any second. She couldn't afford to pussyfoot.

Heidi lifted her chin and forced herself towards the second shuttle, even as the Xenomorph slunk to intercept her. She lowered its ramp and pretended to fiddle with the key pad. She waited for the bug to enter the shuttle first, hoping to trick it, but its patience was remorseless. It didn't move as precious seconds ticked away, not even when she mentally begged it to go so she could shut the door to trap it. Heidi swore. She entered the ship and pretended not to hear it climb in behind her or when it trailed her steps like a monstrous shadow. The claustrophobic sensation was unbearable. She didn't dare look at it as she sat down at the command deck.

The next few motions were a blur as she confirmed the launch keys and spooled the engines. She kept expecting Black's bomb to detonate and wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed when it didn't. Despite the invisible clock and her lethal passenger she felt strangely calm, as if caught in a dream. Or perhaps this was how all slaughterhouse animals felt. She initiated remote door access and manoeuvred into the shuttle into the void, pushing its sluggish impulse drives.

She was thirty kilometers out when the doomed Weyland ship tore apart in a silent, massive detonation. The shuttle's interior flared orange, almost blinding. Heidi only had a moment to brace herself when the shockwave rocked her to the floor, banging her lip. She groaned, cradling the latest hurt. She rolled onto her back and watched a console burp sparks. The air stank of smoke and fried electrical circuits. When nothing else caught on fire she closed her eyes, willing herself to sink through the grating and into nothingness. She'd done it. Exhaustion pulled at her with big, clumsy hands. She'd escaped hell.

Alive. She was alive. For a blissful, beautiful moment, she was free.

A nail clicked against the floor, then another. Heidi's eyes snapped open.

The Xenomorph stared down at her. She stared back. Get up, a little voice said. Get up get up get up. But she couldn't. She laid as if already dead. Maybe if she was still enough, quiet enough, it would leave her alone.

Its lips peeled back without sound. A dim part of her marveled at its silence. Despite all of its leathery, insectile parts, its motions were oiled silent. When the bug reached for her, she could've had her eyes closed and been none the wiser.

Except it never touched her. The hand pressed close to her head, nails inches from her cheek. It leaned over her, faces aligned. She hadn't been this close since their first encounter in the pit. Gods, why did that feel like ages ago? Heidi didn't blink. As with all the other times she waited for it to kill her, the entire moment frozen. Its breath puffed against her skin.

"What do you want?" she asked, voice a croak.

There was no answer. It hovered for a few seconds more before retreating. Heidi watched it go. The smallness of the corridor made the bug seem massive. It rounded a corner and was gone, footsteps fading. After a time Heidi turned her head straight and lost herself in the rivets and switches above. Her heartbeat slowed. She laid there until her shoulders and hips began to ache. At last she peeled herself off the floor as if she was a sticker she didn't want to rip, jaw clenched in pain. Right. Medbay. When she was finally upright she began to limp through the shuttle's passages.

The medbay was nothing more than a room with a mirror, chair, and medicine cabinet. She inched out of the uniform to stand in only her smalls. Her reflection wasn't kind. What wasn't bruised was covered in abrasions and dried blood. She grimaced, gingerly probing the rainbow over her ribs. After a patchwork job of several containers of bandages and antiseptic spray, she made her slow way to the crew's quarters. Like everything else on the shuttle, the quarters were nothing but a glorified set of bunk beds. She groaned as she sat down in one, the mattress dipping.

She didn't remember her head hitting the pillow, or the darkness thereafter.

.

.s.

.

Heidi came awake with a gasp, tearing at her shirt. She looked down. Her chest was whole. She pressed a hand against her raging heartbeat before slumping back, exhausted all over again.

When she no longer felt winded Heidi forced herself sat upright. She strained her ears for another sign of life, but aside from the ship's humming, she heard nothing. But Heidi knew better. She knew her problem was somewhere on the ship, doing whatever the fuck. A sudden thought chilled her to the bone. Maybe it was Queen all along. Queens were always more intelligent than the drones, and this one always seemed to possess a higher thinking. For a terrifying second Heidi contemplated blowing up the shuttle. It would be better, wouldn't it? Kill the Queen before she could destroy another colony. But as Heidi waited, heart in her throat, she knew she couldn't do it. Suicide wasn't an option—yet.

Besides, if the bug was transitioning, there would've been obvious signs. And unless she was mistaken in her xenomorphology, her Xenomorph still expressed as a drone. By now there should've been shedding skin or an increase in size. Maybe it wasn't even transitioning.

Heidi scrubbed her face. Too many thoughts on an empty stomach.

She padded to the mess hall, glancing over her shoulder every so often. Wherever her passenger was, it wasn't following her. She entered the mess and loaded three full packets into the dispenser. The food wasn't even done rehydrating when her mouth started watering. The buzzer had only begun to ring before she tore into them and wolfed as much as she could, not even tasting. When she was done she sat at the table and leaned back, sighing.

She was still enjoying the post-bliss of a hot meal when she realized she wasn't alone.

Despite its large stature the Xenomorph had compressed itself into a small nook, blending with the dark piping. Its knees were drawn to its shoulders, its tail wound around its long feet. Its hands cupped its bony kneecaps, its face buried behind them. Heidi observed it for a long minute, quiet. If she didn't know better, she'd guessed it was sleeping. Then again, what did she know?

"What to do with you," she said softly.

It was clear before she could move past the events on the Weyland-Yutani ship and _Eyopiax_, she had to deal with her travel companion. If this thing made contact with a settled world, it'd be a massacre. A hostile world, then, maybe a planetoid. Drop the thing off, then leave. _You could still try to kill it,_ the little voice said, but Heidi dismissed it. For whatever fucked up reason, it had spared her, and continued to spare her. Some part of her wished it would just get it over with, but another wondered if it ever would. She glanced at her arm where Black's contraption had rested. Though it was gone, she could imagine its weight. Just needed to do this. Then go home.

But even as she tried to convince herself, the lie tasted sour. There was no home to return to, just another shitty job on another shitty mission.

Heidi left the mess hall and went to the command deck. She initiated the sensors and brought up the map, making the deck glow blue with the 3D quadrant. Gelenus III shone like a beacon, just under a week away. Heidi stared at it. It felt like a lifetime ago. Shaking her head, she extended the radius, pushing the shuttle's sensors into the theoretical. A blip caught her attention. It was a tiny desert planetoid on the edge of the quadrant. A schematic brought up its composition and she scrawled through its percentages, noting it had at least eighty-eight percent nitrogen, eighteen percent oxygen, some methane and xenon and others. Well within living levels. And it seemed a natural world, not terraformed or settled.

She triple-checked her fuel and vittles. It would be a month round trip to stop by it before she made it to Gelenus III. She could make it if she went on half rations now.

Heidi stared at it for a moment, then inputted the course. Fuck it.

.

.s.

.

The procession of days paraded past, each one as dull as the next. Heidi slept, ate, shat, played solitaire. Her cuts scabbed and turned itchy and her bruises faded to yellow-green splotches. It stopped hurting to breathe. At a certain point she knew Gelenus III would've realized something had happened to _Eyopiax_ and its passengers. Heidi kept a watchful eye on the scanners, but where she was headed didn't cross any supply runs or even passenger traffic. A part of her wondered if Black was out there, trailing her shuttle, but another part knew she'd never see him again. She doubted she would any other yautja, and was fine with that.

Throughout it all the Xenomorph hadn't moved from its corner in the mess hall, still wound around itself. At least it was consistent. Heidi shuddered to think it roaming the corridors when she slept, but the camera feeds never hinted movement.

Around day twenty she thought it might've died.

She stared at it over her rehydrated sweet pork. The bug hadn't twitched so much as a toenail. Heidi chewed slowly. It didn't even seem to be breathing, its sides as still as the piping around it. She finished eating and tossed the empty packet, not caring at making noise anymore. But instead of leaving the mess hall, she felt herself veer, hip brushing the table's rounded edge. Her naked feet clicked against the floor as she walked to it. She paused when she saw her reflection in its bowed forehead. _Don't,_ something whispered, but Heidi couldn't stop her hand from reaching out. Her fingertips brushed against the carapace. It was rougher than she thought, tiny dips and marks dragging her skin. Before she could stop herself she pressed her entire palm to it. It was the temperature of the ship, somewhere between warm and cool. She was still rubbing it, remarking its imperfect texture, when the shell jolted back.

Heidi couldn't move as the face appeared from where it'd been pressed against the knees, her hand hovering in place. Like all the other times, they stared at each other. Its lips lifted and Heidi felt the breath curl out her mouth. The anticipation of death was there—it would always be—but there was something else, too. With all the courage she had left she closed the distance between them, her fingers brushing against its ruinous jaw.

She could hear its breath now, could see its sides move. Had she'd imagined the stillness to begin with?

"If you're gonna kill me, now's the time to do it," she said. Her voice was calm while her heart stuttered.

It pulled away from her touch, but gently, as if it had meant to change position all along, its teeth no longer bared. Heidi returned her hand to her side, stepped back, then left the mess hall. She went to her bunk and drank whiskey for the rest of the cycle.

.

.s.

.

From that point on the bug appeared awake whenever Heidi came to the mess hall. It didn't leave its nook but watched as she bustled about, head following her movements. She didn't attempt to touch it again—she still didn't know what possessed her to do it in the first place. She thanked all the gods it didn't seem to be transitioning into a Queen.

Throughout the remaining days she kept an eye on the long- and short-range scanners, tracking both their approach to the planetoid and covering their ion trail. There'd be hell to explain if she got caught with a Xenomorph, and even after nearly a month of isolation, she found she was no closer to wanting to unload herself on another person. She knew she would eventually have to; after all, she would have to explain what happened to _Eyopiax_ to the Gelenus III authorities. File a report on Mr. Ward. Report the missing Company ship to Weyland-Yutani. Most likely give a deposition. Get picked apart by the press. Maybe spend a stint in lockup if they didn't believe her story.

Heidi stared at the 3D map without seeing. The last person she'd spoken to had been Halling, right before she shot him. She glanced down and tilted her empty glass. She'd already ran out of the rationed whiskey. The thought of explaining his death locked her throat. They'd never been friends, but his death had been a waste. Everything had been.

Well. Heidi glanced even further to see Black's knife strapped to her calf. The memory of Red's exposed neck stem gushing blood warmed her better than the whiskey had. Not everything.

She looked up to find the Xenomorph had wedged its way onto the command deck.

"Christ," she said, hand flying to her chest. "Gotta put a bell on you."

It ignored her, tall and hulking. Heidi shivered, remembering the hard resin feel of its skin.

"We're almost there," she said, as if it were natural to talk to it. If she pretended it could hear her, maybe it wouldn't unzip her guts. She nodded to the map, pointing to the blinking dot and to the stationary one they were headed to. "Maybe another ten hours, give or take."

The bug perched itself on the deck proper, close to the curved glass of the windows. Heidi had no idea how it perceived its world, but she didn't doubt it could see the stars. Maybe it was as eager as her to get off the shuttle, and somehow sensed they were close.

Heidi left to go get some rack time, pausing only once at the threshold to wonder at the insanity of leaving a Xenomorph on the bridge alone. Then again, what part of any of this was sane? She strode away, found her bunk, and closed her eyes.

Without the help of whiskey sleep was thin and broken, and when Heidi awoke, she felt no less rested. She glanced at the clock. Showtime. When she made it to the bridge, the bug was in the same spot she'd left it. It didn't acknowledge her presence, but she knew it knew she was there.

Heidi double-checked the sensors. Clear. They were it, the only shuttle for nearly two parsecs. She took a deep breath. No chance for either rescue or capture. She manoeuvred the shuttle down to the planetoid, relying on the ship's AI system for most of the descent's legwork. She knew enough not to crash, but barely. The shuttle jumped and jostled as it entered the atmosphere, its edges going red-hot. After a heart pounding minute they punched through, leveling out. Heidi glanced at the readings. She directed the shuttle towards the northern hemisphere. There was a green patch hundreds of kilometers wide, the only one on the planetoid.

When they were low enough for ground passes Heidi directed the AI to land in a little clearing. Buffeting winds tossed nearby trees as the shuttle zeroed in for its approach. After several moments of hovering, its landing gear touched the ground. It sunk in, giving a full-length shudder before going quiet.

Heidi looked up from the controls to see the Xenomorph was already moving, striding aft. She initiated the ramp-lowering sequence, staying in her chair. Without moving she listened to the mechanic hiss of the ramp, the chatter of heavy footprints descending the metal grating, then to the quiet that followed. She could already taste the freshness of the breeze entering the shuttle, grassy and sweet. It must've been close to a year at this point since she last experienced unfiltered air.

Even as a part of her urged her to close the ramp now nownownow and take off, she found herself leaving the deck to descend the ramp herself. As she stepped into the grass, warmth and sunlight greeted her like an old friend. She turned her face upward, closing her eyes to the brightness. It beat sitting under vitamin D lamps by a long stretch.

Heidi looked down and blinked. She expected the bug halfway across the continent but found it several meters away, near the edge of the clearing. It was resting on its haunches, long and sleek, head turned to her. If it were a dog she'd say it was waiting. But it wasn't a dog, it was a Xenomorph. She watched, waiting in turn for it to slink off, to disappear into the underbrush as if it never existed in the first place.

"Go on, get outta here," she said, making a shooing motion. "You're free."

The bug didn't move. In the sunlight its carapace was almost blue.

Heidi stopped trying to push it away, unsure if it would mistake her efforts as aggression. What did it matter? It was here. Mission complete. She went back in the shuttle and hovered her hand over the button to close the ramp. When she went to press it, she found she couldn't. Her breath hitched. She felt twelve again, starting at the ocean.

This was crazy. She was crazy. When she could move again Heidi hurried through the corridors to the command deck. She removed the launch keys and went to her rack. She found a backpack in the emergency section and began stuffing it full of survival gear—rope, dry food, a fire starter kit, water, nav. tech, clothing—until she was staggering under its weight. She didn't know how long she'd be gone, or if she'd even return. There was forever the possibility it would kill her.

Before she could lose her nerve she plodded back down the ramp. The Xenomorph was in the same spot, tail wound around its feet. It made its chuffing noise. She took a cautious step forward, then another. When they became close enough to touch it rose as a man and strode into the forest.

Heidi released a breath and began to follow, each step surer than the last.

.

.

.

_-fin-_


End file.
